My feet can’t stay in one place very long. After my epic journey through Europe, I had moved to a new town for graduate school, took a spontaneous trip out to Western Canada, took a two week vacation in Spain, and moved back to my hometown for a new job. It had been a year and a half since exploring the hills of Andalucia, and my legs were restless. My mind was wandering at work and in life, and I was desperate for a new adventure. After browsing trough pamphlets at a travel agency at the university I was working at, my eye was drawn to a bright purple booklet advertising for G.A.P. Adventures – The Great Adventure People. Little did I know at the time, but that day was the beginning of my love affair with the greatest company in the world, now known as G Adventures, or more affectionately, just G (The clothing store GAP sued them over the name a few years ago).
After being blown away by all of the potentially life-changing trips offered by G, I finally settled on a tour into the heart of Ecuador in South America, “Inland and Amazon”. This trip changed my life forever. This trip was the catalyst for a dreadfully painful period of over-hauling my entire life, but it is also the main reason I am where I am today. The two greatest days of my life (so far) occurred on this trip. I will be forever grateful to G for changing my life for the better.
http://www.gadventures.com/trips/inland-amazon/EIA/2013/
My journey to Ecuador started with an uneventful airplane ride from Detroit to Miami with American Airlines. While on layover in MIA, I was slowly gaining an understanding of what I was getting myself into. I couldn’t comprehend a word of what was going on around me…and I was still in America! After learning I had a bit of a delay, I started chatting with the girl sitting beside me, and she had a pretty cool story. Her summer job blew my current job out of the water. This girl was employed as a chaperone who escorted privileged Canadian teenagers down to a poor, rural town near Riobamba in the Andes mountains in Ecuador. Here they would help to construct buildings that the town was in desperate need of (eg. elementary school), and they would help the local children learn to speak English. She said that watching the transformation of the Canadian kids, while also helping the Ecuadorian people to obtain a better life, was incredibly rewarding, and the best job she’s ever had. I was slightly envious.
Getting the rest of the way to Quito was a bit rough for me. The girl I befriended ended up sitting right next to me on the airplane, which I was very happy about, until an hour in when I suddenly came down with a serious case of cramps and had to rock back and forth like a miserable crazy person for a few hours trying to get them to go away. She must have thought I was nuts. To top it off, my water bottle leaked all over my bag. When I finally arrived in the capital city of Quito, I was admittedly not very impressed. In my journal I described it as looking like a run-down version of Mexico, where no trees lived, and that even the drug and prostitute neighborhoods of my home-town looked nicer than this place (forgive me – I’ll make up for it). I think what was really going on was that I was completely overwhelmed, and I arrived in this strange city at night. With the exception of my visit to a well taken care of city in Mexico when I was 18, I had never been outside of a first world country. Not speaking the language, I was afraid that my taxi would drive me to the middle of nowhere and leave me for dead. In reality, I was driven to one of the nicer hotels I’ve ever stayed in, and though I spent the night inside, I really could not have been in a safer situation.
Still a bit jittery when I woke up in the morning, I was immediately stalled. As I was getting my gear ready, I heard some unexplained rumbling noises, the lights in my room started flickering, and then went out all together. After convincing myself the hotel was NOT under a terrorist attack, and that I had NOT just experienced an earthquake, I sucked it up and had the shower I desperately needed…in the dark. Fortunately, just as I was finishing, the lights turned back on and I was even able to do my hair. Huzzah! The tables were turning! Next on the list was changing rooms and meeting up with my Dutch tour-mate and roomie. She had just arrived from Europe, so I went out on my own to explore the city. In the day time, I realized Quito really was quite astounding, and my nerves finally subsided.
Starting with the “Old Town”, which is very colonial and the prettiest neighborhood of Quito, I explored the main square, Plaza Grande o de la Independencia, which consisted of a stone monument, and a park crawling with what felt like hundreds of people. After walking a few blocks down the street, I came across the Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco. Here, I had a fabulous view of the El Panecillo monument off in the distant Andes. The San Francisco cathedral itself was a strange combination of Baroque and Moorish architecture – and VERY dark. Outside of the Iglesia, I experienced my first brush with Ecuadorian hospitality when a young security guard left his post to gently inform me that I had money sticking out of pocket, and to please tuck it away. Thank you senor.
Iglesio y Convento de San Francisco
Saint Francis
El Panecillo
The next site I visited was the immaculate Iglesia de Compana de Jesus. This is hands down the prettiest church I have EVER seen, and I’ve seen LOTS of churches. It was prettier than St. Peter’s Cathedral at the Vatican. Why you ask? Oh you know, because the ENTIRE church is gold plated inside. Once you get over the gruesomely graphic painting interpretation of Hell that sprawls across an entire wall (FYI: Fully committed to NOT going there), it is impossible to not be mesmerized by the golden beauty of this pequeno heaven on earth. Unfortunately you are not allowed to snap photos inside the church.
Church of the Society of Jesus
After the compana, I decided to check out the Teleferico, a cable car that glides you up to an astounding view of the city at 13000ft. As the car climbs, the vegetation changes from lush green trees to what I can only describe as moor lands. Overlooking the city was very cool, but the real excitement came from hiking around the area to see the surrounding volcanoes. It was breathtaking, both figuratively and literally. On the hike back down to the cable car, I experienced some very strange weather patterns – in one day I felt boiling hot sun, chilly rain, bitter cold wind, and most surprising, hail – just a typical day in Quito apparently. Another thing I found very interesting was that this was the first time in my life where I was a visible minority. On the ride up the teleferico, a father kept pointing out my blue eyes to his young son. While sipping on hot chocolate at the top of the mountain, a group of teenagers asked if they could take a photo with me, because I was exotic. I have white skin and mousy brown hair, I’d never been exotic in my life!
A high altitude view of Quito’s urban sprawl
Hiking through the Andes around Quito
Later on that evening I had my first meeting with the G Adventures tour group. We were comprised of 5 Canadians, 2 Americans, 4 South Africans, 1 European and our Ecuadorian guide. It was really cool learning about all these people from all over the world, while also being immersed in an entirely new culture. That evening was my first experience with Andean Ecuadorian food – llapingachos (a patty of mashed potatoes with cheese – still one of my faves), a quarter of a chicken, lettuce, beets, avocado (thus began a new obsession) and white corn. Including my soda, plus 12% taxes, and a 10% tip, my dinner cost was under $10. I could get used to this!
On my last day in Quito I had a few hours to kill so my roomie and I hopped in a taxi and went out to see the Mitad del Mundo, which was a monument built on the equator. After shooting all the required touristy photos, and being content with myself for having one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere, I then learned that the monument was not quite right. Womp womp. The Spanish scientists who took the original measurements must have been sipping a little too much of the pilsner, because years later it was determined that the real equator was actually about 120m away. While I was slightly upset with this revelation, I soon forgot it upon being introduced to the greatest little sandwich shop in the world….where I ate ham….for the first time in ten years!
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